Combined Data Reveals One in Five Truckloads Moved Completely Empty in 2022, According to Flock Freight’s Annual Shipper Survey

Flock Freight, the only technology company creating a smarter, more sustainable supply chain by pooling freight at scale, found in its annual survey¹ that exorbitant fees and wasted capacity threatened shippers’ profitability despite a favorable deflationary market throughout 2022.

According to 200 transportation and logistics professionals surveyed by Flock Freight and Drive Research, only 55 percent of shippers filled their trucks to capacity last year. The rest were unable to fill 25 out of 53 linear feet of deck space. The combined empty space on trucks revealed an even greater cost for businesses: one in five truckload (TL) shipments moved completely empty in 2022. The cost of shipping air, compounded with substantial fees, damage, and shipment delays tied to the freight industry’s traditional shipping methods — truckload (TL), partial truckload (PTL), and less-than-truckload (LTL).

"Today’s $7 trillion supply-chain industry works backwards," said Oren Zaslansky, founder and CEO of Flock Freight. "Limited choices among outdated shipping modes forces customers to pay for inefficient options that no longer work. We believe shippers should have the flexibility to move their goods on time and on budget.”

As shippers face growing pressure to deliver goods on time and on budget, the survey’s results also reveal an opportunity for shippers to only pay for the space they need — while avoiding the usual costs of inefficient shipping modes. Flock Freight’s guaranteed terminal-free shared truckload option uses patented technology to pool freight at scale for multiple customers.

Other key findings (broken down by shipper challenge) include:

• Cost Inefficiency
  • LTL shippers paid an average of $1,988 for each damaged and late LTL shipment in 2022
  • OTIF fees are costing shippers $253,198 in average, with $83,064 from LTL shipments in 2022
  • 86% of LTL shippers experienced damage claims in 2022, with LTL carriers covering only 66% of those damage claims
  • 83.9% of LTL shippers reported being charged accessorial fees often
  • 22.2% of LTL shipments incurred accessorial fees in 2022
  • 19.2% of LTL shipments incurred OTIF fees in 2022
• Delivery Inefficiency
  • 45% of shippers in 2022 reported shipping partially empty truckloads with an average of 25 linear feet of unused deck space
  • 21% of U.S. truckload freight capacity is going to waste within partially empty trucks

The full report can be found here.

¹ The data supporting the content and objectives set forth in this press release come from an online survey conducted by Drive Research, a third party not affiliated with Flock Freight. The survey took an average of 21 minutes to complete and included 49 questions and received 200 responses. Fieldwork for the survey began on February 3 and ended February 23, 2023.

Target industries included F&B, retail, building materials, industrial machinery and equipment, tech and electronics, plastics/paper/packaging, and automotive. A minimum of n20 was obtained from each industry. Target participant titles varied based on the size of the business (i.e., transportation buyers, load managers, transportation managers, VPs of supply chain, directors of transportation, logistics managers). A strong mix of company sizes to segment the data by the market included a distribution of $10M to $99M annual revenue, $100M to $499M annual revenue, and $500M or more annual revenue.

With a probabilistic sample, a total of 200 responses at the 95% confidence level offers a 7% margin of error. If the survey were conducted with another random pool of 200 respondents, the results would yield within +7% or -7% of the stated totals in the reports. The margin of error can be used as a guideline to understand the reliability of these results.

About Flock Freight

Founded in 2015, Flock Freight is a technology company reinventing the supply chain through smarter, more sustainable shipping solutions. By leveraging its patented technology, Flock Freight matches locations, schedules, and compatible shipments, finding the best options to pool freight at scale among billions of possible combinations. As one of the first freight shipping companies to earn a B Corporation certification, Flock Freight’s solutions for moving fuller trucks on optimized routes results in reduced carbon emissions by up to 40% compared to traditional methods. Flock Freight was recently recognized as one of TIME’s Most Influential Companies in the World and as a CNBC Disruptor 50. To learn more about the company, offerings, and careers, visit flockfreight.com.

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